85 Years Later, Fantasia Remains Disney’s Biggest Gamble

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Following the success of *Snow White*, Disney continued its winning streak with *Pinocchio* in 1940, earning two Academy Awards despite a slow start at the box office. Around the same time, the studio was also developing something different: a collection of musical segments released as *Fantasia* later that year. While *Snow White* and *Pinocchio* told complete, single stories, *Fantasia* took a riskier approach with its unusual format – a series of connected pieces – which could easily have failed.

Disney’s *Fantasia* was a bold experiment, combining animation with famous classical music. It first premiered as a special event in thirteen cities across the United States. However, due to a very expensive production and the disruption caused by World War II, the film didn’t earn much money initially. Despite this, *Fantasia* eventually became a huge success, ranking among the top 25 highest-grossing films of all time – even outperforming more recent blockbusters like *Spider-Man: No Way Home* and *Jurassic World* when accounting for inflation.

Disney’s Fantasia Was an Experiment in Pushing Animation Boundaries

The idea for *Fantasia* started with a plan to create a short film based on *The Sorcerer’s Apprentice*. Disney quickly decided to expand this into a larger project with multiple segments. The film opens with a live-action orchestra, which then transitions into an animated interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach’s *Toccata and Fugue in D Minor*. The abstract visuals were designed to move with the music. This was followed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s *The Nutcracker Suite*, which used a series of dances – featuring flowers, fairies, mushrooms, and fish – to represent the changing seasons.

The first truly narrative part of *Fantasia* features Mickey Mouse in the famous “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” segment, which is arguably the film’s most memorable scene. The movie brilliantly paired classical music—including pieces by Stravinsky (*The Rite of Spring*), Beethoven (*The Pastoral Symphony*), Ponchielli (*Dance of the Hours*), Mussorgsky (*Night on Bald Mountain*), and Schubert (*Ave Maria*)—with imaginative animated shorts. These shorts brought to life stories of mythology, fantastical creatures, Earth’s history, and even the demon Chernabog. *Fantasia* was a remarkably bold and ambitious project, pushing the limits of both music and animation.

Before *Fantasia*, Disney’s *Silly Symphonies* cartoons had already been experimenting with combining classical music and animation. However, Walt Disney envisioned *Fantasia* as something far beyond simple comedy – a truly imaginative experience. He partnered with Leopold Stokowski, the renowned conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, who was thrilled to participate and even suggested ways to visually enhance the music with color. Disney was so inspired that he brought in a full symphony orchestra to create the score for *The Sorcerer’s Apprentice*.

The budget for the short film quickly started to climb higher than expected. Walt Disney’s brother, Roy, warned him to cut costs, pointing out that it was hard to know if such a unique and risky film would be profitable. But Walt was confident in his vision and saw the budget issues as a challenge to overcome. Instead of releasing *The Sorcerer’s Apprentice* on its own, he decided to expand it into a full-length movie. Around 1938, two years before *Fantasia* came out, the film was temporarily called *The Concert Feature*. The studio held a contest to find a better name, and that’s how they eventually landed on the perfect title.

Creating *Fantasia* was a massive undertaking, requiring more than a thousand artists and technicians. Each segment of the film was designed with a unique color palette inspired by the music it accompanied. The movie wasn’t filmed in sequence; instead, nearly 4,000 feet of footage was painstakingly assembled to create the final 126-minute film. To achieve his ambitious vision, Walt Disney developed innovative technologies, including a complex multiplane camera and a groundbreaking sound system called Fantasound. In fact, *Fantasia* was the first film ever presented in stereo, setting a new standard for cinematic sound.

Disney’s Gamble With Fantasia Nearly Ended the Studio

As Roy O. Disney predicted, the studio faced rapidly increasing costs. The innovative Fantasound system accounted for a significant 20% of the film’s total budget, and the equipment needed to build it cost a hefty $200,000. Despite being a groundbreaking achievement that paved the way for today’s surround sound technology, *Fantasia* put the studio in serious financial danger. Adding to the challenges, RKO Pictures felt the film’s length was an issue and wouldn’t allow a typical release. Instead, Disney decided to premiere *Fantasia* with a special roadshow tour, beginning in New York City, and then expanding to cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Baltimore, Cleveland, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

The studio faced problems beyond just its budget. World War II hindered the release of *Fantasia* in key international markets like Europe, where nearly half of the anticipated profits were expected. The war also negatively affected the film’s US tour. Adding to these difficulties, efforts to unionize led to animator strikes, delaying not only *Fantasia* but also Disney’s next two films, *Dumbo* (1941) and *Bambi* (1942). Although *Bambi* was somewhat more successful, it wasn’t enough to fully recover the losses. *Fantasia* proved to be a significant financial failure, and Disney’s plans to create more films in a similar format were unsuccessful.

Fantasia’s Critical Success Fueled Disney’s Ambition

While classical musicians weren’t impressed with Disney’s *Fantasia* – Stravinsky famously said the order of his compositions was messed up and the performance was terrible – film critics loved it, calling it a groundbreaking masterpiece. *The LA Times* suggested the film offered something for everyone, comparing it to both a popular treat and a delicacy for those with refined tastes. *The New York Times* went even further, declaring *Fantasia* a major advancement in cinema, highlighting its potential for creative storytelling.

Ultimately, what made *Fantasia* a landmark achievement for Disney was its innovative use of music to tell the story. The animation wasn’t just *with* the music, it worked *with* it, a style that would inspire many films to come. *Sleeping Beauty* even took things further with the first true stereo soundtrack, building on the technology pioneered in *Fantasia*. Later Disney classics like *Beauty and the Beast*, *Frozen*, *The Little Mermaid*, *The Lion King*, *Pocahontas*, *Mulan*, *Aladdin*, and *Hercules* all show the influence of *Fantasia*’s approach to developing characters and plot through music. In many ways, *Fantasia* redefined what an animated musical could be.

With its innovative, non-traditional scenes, *Fantasia* paved the way for more imaginative storytelling in Disney films. We see this influence in moments like Maleficent’s transformation in *Sleeping Beauty*, the dreamlike sequence in *Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day*, and many scenes throughout *Alice in Wonderland*. The film’s use of *The Rite of Spring* also sparked Disney’s ongoing fascination with nature, evident in movies like *Bambi*, *The Lion King*, *The Jungle Book*, *Dinosaur*, and again in the later *The Lion King*. In essence, *Fantasia* demonstrated that animation could be a powerful and respected art form, and the success of the Disney Renaissance is partly thanks to this ambitious and visually stunning musical film.

Fantasia’s Legacy Has Been Marred by Controversies

Similar to many popular movies today, *Fantasia* grew into a large franchise, expanding to include Disneyland attractions, live-action remakes, and video games. It’s remained a part of popular culture for 85 years. However, the sequel didn’t live up to the original, despite initially being a box office success and receiving slightly better reviews. Many critics felt it lacked the impact of the first film. Over the years, the original *Fantasia* itself has also faced several controversies with each new release and re-release.

As a lifelong Disney and animation fan, I’ve always loved *Fantasia*’s boldness, but it’s impossible to ignore some of its problematic moments. Specifically, the *Pastoral Symphony* segment featured some really uncomfortable racial stereotypes – there was a scene with a Black centaurette literally polishing the hooves of a white one. Disney actually ended up removing both of those characters from the final cut. Even Roger Ebert, in his book *Questions for the Movie Answer Man*, pointed out how unnecessary those stereotypes were, especially in a film aimed at kids. And things got even more complicated when the Philadelphia Orchestra actually sued Disney, wanting a share of the profits – they eventually settled out of court, but the details were kept secret. Look, *Fantasia* is a stunning achievement, but we can appreciate its brilliance *and* acknowledge its flaws – it’s important to look at the whole picture.

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2025-10-16 16:15